Islamic hard-line militias claim control of Benghazi

Friday

Aug 1, 2014 at 12:01 AMAug 1, 2014 at 12:23 PM

BENGHAZI, Libya - Islamic hard-line militias, including the group accused by the United States in a 2012 attack that killed the ambassador and three other Americans, claimed control of Libya's second-largest city, Benghazi, after overrunning army barracks and seizing heavy weapons.

BENGHAZI, Libya — Islamic hard-line militias, including the group accused by the United States in a 2012 attack that killed the ambassador and three other Americans, claimed control of Libya’s second-largest city, Benghazi, after overrunning army barracks and seizing heavy weapons.

The sweep in the eastern city is part of a new backlash by hard-liners against their rivals ahead of the sitting of a new parliament.

In Tripoli, the capital, escalating battles between militias yesterday prompted foreign governments to scramble to remove their citizens as thousands of Libyans fled across the border into Tunisia.

The weeks-long surge of violence renewed fears that Libya, which has been in chaos since the 2011 civil war that ousted longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, is plunging deeper into civil strife.

With a crippled central government and a weak army and police force, the country’s numerous rival militias have held sway in Libya for three years.

Although they battled each other frequently, a balance of fear among them prevented any from going too far and forced them to divide areas of power. But now, militias led by Islamist and extremist commanders appear to be trying to gain the upper hand.

The Health Ministry said yesterday that the death toll in Tripoli since the violence intensified in the past month reached 214, with more than 981 people wounded.

Militias allied with Islamist politicians have fought for weeks to wrest control of Tripoli’s airport from rival militias.